Who would share our sins?

As the Indian lady accompanied by the Croatian hosts walked in to Swami’s room to serve Him breakfast, looking at the Idlis in the plate held by the Croatian lady, Swami asked, “Did you make those idlis?”

“No Swami! But Lakshmi (the Indian lady) did”, she replied.

“Oh! Then who should get the merit of serving me the Idlis, the one who cooked or the one who carried it?”, enquired Swami playfully.

Looking at Swami’s half smile, I instinctively knew that a lesson was on its way!

“We all will share the merit”, reciprocated the Croatian lady with smiles.

“Of course, everyone wants to share the merits of others, but no one is willing to share their sins. God alone shares the sins”, He replied as a matter of fact.

What sounded like a simple statement, carried profoundest of truths, of His very continued existence.

A few years ago in the Prasanthi Mandir interview room, Sri B N Narasimha Murthy had tearfully asked Swami in an exclusively private moment about His deteriorating physical health, “Swami! What have you done to Yourself?”